Windows Vista technical question

[Asbo Zaprudder]

A question for Windows Vista experts:

Is there a utility that I can use to find out which process or processes have a file open or which are accessing a mounted file system? I find that I cannot unmount the file system that contains the file even though I have exited the application that I was using to access the file.

Thanks.

 

[Jadzia]

They're called file handles.

Process Monitor is nice,
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx


But Process Explorer is probably what you want,
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Sometimes a computer system can have file handle leaks, which is where an application mismanages it's file handles causing some to end up in a perpetual state of openness, even after an application has terminated. It's only really a problem with mountable drives like usb sticks though.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Thanks! I know how to do this stuff on Unix and Linux, but Windows is another thing altogether.